WOONSOCKET – It took police and child protective services spanning the nation, but 6-year-old Daniel Britt was found safe and sound Thursday after his mother, Andria Britt, turned herself into Washington state authorities.

“I am really relieved and I’m happy that my son is safe,” Daniel’s father, Sean Britt, said while appearing at a Woonsocket Police Department press conference announcing the happy ending to the worries over his son’s safety.

“I couldn’t be happier,” he added of getting a telephone call Thursday evening that his son was safe in Washington. Britt, who last saw Daniel on Jan. 3 when he dropped him off at the police station for a visit with his ex-wife and Daniel’s mother, said he had to ask Det. Sgt. Matthew Ryan to repeat the good news when he got the call. “Then we took off,” the father said while recalled how he and his girlfriend, Candy Hazard, had left her daughter’s basketball game to go to the Woonsocket Police Station.

“He is safe, he is OK and I just want to make sure that he was safe and that they had him,” Britt said of the sudden turn of events in the search for his son.

Woonsocket Police Chief Thomas S. Carey opened the press conference by telling the media assembled in the station lobby, “We have some great news to share with you.”

Carey credited a multi-agency effort coordinated by Det. Sgt. Ryan, a department juvenile specialist, and Det. Lt. Adam Remick with locating Daniel and his mother in the Camano Islands area of Washington.
Daniel’s mother, who was reported to have traveled to Washington by car while the pair have been missing, “surrendered voluntarily” to Washington and Seattle FBI authorities, Carey said.

“At this point mom and son are in good health,” Carey said. Daniel was in the custody of Washington child welfare authorities and being checked out, the chief said. His mother was in the custody of the Island County Sheriff’s office and would be facing extradition proceedings on the Rhode Island charge of felony child snatching that is pending against her, according to Carey.